Sixteen-year-old Lyric Walker’s life is forever changed when she witnesses the arrival of 30,000 Alpha, a five-nation race of ocean-dwelling warriors, on her beach in Coney Island. The world’s initial wonder and awe over the Alpha quickly turns ugly and paranoid and violent, and Lyric’s small town transforms into a military zone with humans on one side and Alpha on the other.

When Lyric is recruited to help the crown prince, a boy named Fathom, assimilate, she begins to fall for him. But their love is a dangerous one, and there are forces on both sides working to keep them apart. Only, what if the Alpha are not actually the enemy? What if they are in fact humanity’s only hope of survival? Because the real enemy is coming. And it’s more terrifying than anything the world has ever seen.

This was a rather interesting book, and another that I didn’t really read the blurb before starting, so I didn’t have much of an idea what it would be about.

I found the concept to be quite good, and it is very easy to draw parallels between how the Alpha are treated to how refugees are greeted. The blurb goes on to make a comparison to District 9, and I think that’s a very good one – although as a YA novel, this one didn’t hit me quite as hard as District 9 did.

That said, this wasn’t the most fantastic book I’ve ever read. A lot of the dialogue was a little on the ridiculous side, and I never warmed up to Lyric and Fathom’s relationship. There are a lot of the classic YA stereotypes, but as I wasn’t expecting anything different, they didn’t bother me too much. Many of the secondary characters aren’t given enough time or depth to become grating, which is a very real possibility for some of them.

In all, it was a nice easy read, the interesting parts are just enough to outweigh the silly ones, and I’ll probably make an effort to keep reading the series, if only to see how it plays out.